There’s something about the light

Fri, 04/25/2014 - 07:34

Wondrous strange. That’s the title of a Farnsworth Museum of Art book on the Wyeth family of painters. Starting with illustrator NC, and following on through Andrew and his son Jamie, the Wyeths have put images of Maine in people’s heads for a century. It’s the wondrous light. The Yankee forbearance. The translation of the living ethic, “use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without” into images of dories and pastures and spruces against the sky that also characterize the people in this sometimes hard place at land’s edge.

Talk to respected contemporary painters and you’ll hear the same refrains: the subjects, the geometry of granite shores, the color, the light. They speak of the willingness of Maine to embrace them as artists. To share the towns and diners. To understand art as something not unlike fishing: a pursuit undertaken because it’s the life that calls to them. There’s no pretense and no distance between the artist and all the others who work with their hands in Maine. Understanding that essence is what makes Maine one of the great cradles for art in the country. Nurturing, if that’s not too soft a word for the obsession that drives them, the likes of Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, Marsden Hartley.

So they come to Maine. To Ogunquit. To Monhegan. And they stay. The Maine Art Trail connects the places that collect, curate and show the established and emerging masters. The galleries, like Gleason Fine Art here in Boothbay, are the places that support the enduring tradition.

All of which is why we are delighted to showcase the work of Kevin Beers, a Monhegan Art Colony painter (represented by Dennis Gleason), who has completed two works for Spruce Point Inn: the painterly vision of two of our favorite spots: Burnt Island Light and Ram Head Light. You’ll see the originals if you come to the Inn. Once you’re here, you’ll see the light and the color and the form that inspired him and inspires us. As always, we can’t wait to share the view!